Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Acquired by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 205.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 220,732 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 148,565 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned 0.10% of Flowers Foods worth $4,560,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 13,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Flowers Foods by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 228,913 shares of the company's stock worth $4,729,000 after purchasing an additional 48,686 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Flowers Foods by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 217,032 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,484,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 267,232 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,521,000 after buying an additional 11,995 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 41,200 shares of the company's stock valued at $851,000 after buying an additional 1,165 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FLO. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $19.25.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 3.7%

Shares of NYSE FLO traded down $0.64 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $16.51. 2,627,739 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,606,389. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $18.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a PE ratio of 14.11, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.41 and a twelve month high of $24.40.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 16th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 4.86%. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. Flowers Foods's revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs.